Happy New Year!

Some ruffly items that would be pretty for wearing to a New Year's Eve celebration.


We are hanging in there. Thanks for the sweet comments! I appreciate it. We are just having a calm night at home. Me, my husband, Kavi and my mom will be here relaxing. Maybe we will watch a movie and we bought some yummy snacks too. It's been kind of hard the past week because of Kavi being sick and now I have a head cold too. A lot of plans for fun had to be canceled. I am glad my mom is visiting though! She is super nice and fun to be with.

I wish you all a blessed and wonderful NEW YEAR!!!

Update: No pneumonia!

I just had to write that the results showed no pneumonia! :) He did however get the shots in the legs again, ouchie!!:( And he is on antibiotics (liquid) for 10 days. But at least it's not as bad as we thought it might be!

Sick little boy

Yesterday was quite eventful. I talked already about Kavi being sick. His cough just sounded icky so I decided to take him to his pediatrician in the afternoon. I had no idea it was going to turn into a long evening.

We got to the Dr's office and didn't wait that long in the waiting room. Great! But then, we waited for sooo long in the small examining room. That drives me crazy. I'd rather wait a long time in the waiting room where there is more space to walk around and look out of windows to keep Kavi entertained.

So we finally saw the Dr. and he took a swab swipe of Kavi's throat to test it, it came back fine. But then the Dr mentions that he is worried that Kavi might have pneumonia! Eeks. And that he wants him to get an antibiotic shot, and then when we leave to go to the nearby hospital for a chest X-ray and blood work. The antibiotic shots went into both legs, and the nurse said they would hurt inside until the numbing kicked in. :( So Kavi cried a lot, of course.

Then we went to the hospital where we had no waiting time at each department but Kavi cried and cried during his blood being drawn. Held by me, arm held by my mom, and my husband was with us by then. Just not a fun night! We got back home about 3 1/2 hours after leaving the house.

We go back to the Dr today around 2pm to find out what the x-ray/blood work show. I'm praying and hoping it's not pneumonia, and that this was just precautionary.

I made this a couple weeks ago in honor of my little boy, so what better time to share it! Art finds inspired by my little boy.

Back home

We arrived back home last night from our Christmas trip to Alabama. Unfortunately my son is sick, poor little boy! He has been dealing with it since Christmas Eve. He had a fever. Now the fever is gone but he has a cough. I also feel like I am fighting some sinus issues. My mom came back with us for a visit so that is very nice! Me and Kavi won't have to be alone while dealing with the ickies.

I wanted to share one of my gifts, though I plan to share more of my Etsy purchased gifts that I received! I picked out this locket but my husband bought it for me on etsy from uniqueartpendants.etsy.com. I love it! It's a nice, large size too.

I hope to write more soon. Oh! If you want to see more pictures from our visit, you can visit my mom's blog where she recently uploaded some pictures. Consider the lillies

Cozy Christmas Time

My mom decorates so cutely in her house and for Christmas this year she made it even cuter than usual. Some corners of my parents' home:


I got so many cute and fun items from my family and friends last night. Many handmade items(some made by them, some by other artistic folks).

Merry Christmas!

The days ahead

So we leave today, in the early afternoon. I'm praying for a smooth drive. I'll probably write another entry and schedule it to post while we are away. I will have access to a computer or two but not really to sit writing on the blog.

The days ahead will be filled with a lot of fun and good food! And presents! And thinking of the season and New Year that is soon coming. As may be apparent by now, though I don't talk about it much on here, I'm religious (Christian) so this time of year is nice for reflecting on the story of Jesus' birth and it holds much importance for me.

On Christmas Eve we will all head over to a friend's house up in Alabama for cookies, snacks, and some gift exchanging with them. It's been a tradition for many years now that we share Christmas Eve with this family. It usually took place here in Florida, but it will happen up there instead! If that sounds confusing, it's because my friend Cindy who lives in Alabama, her parents live here still in my town. She used to live here as well but she moved to Alabama years ago when she got married and that is how we "met" the town she lives in (that my parents moved to).

Christmas will be at my parents' house of course. We may go to a local park on Christmas evening if weather permits to look at their amazing Christmas light displays and take a ride on a really cute train that is there. Here's a picture I took of it, not exactly the best one but you get the idea!

See you all later!

Christmas Countdown: 3 days!

Wow! I feel very Christmassy at the moment. It's been chilly here in Florida which has helped to make it feel like December.

And it's only ONE day until we head to Alabama! We will drive up tomorrow in the early afternoon. My husband will work first for a few hours and then we will leave. It's the first time I won't be in Florida for a Christmas since 1983, when I was a toddler in New York City, before we moved to FL in the summer of 1984. (I was born in 80)

My Etsy sales have been good for me for the holiday season. I wasn't expecting much action after last week because I just thought everyone would be too busy to shop online. But surprisingly, I received at least one order per day since last Wednesday! I feel blessed with it. I know I put a lot of work into it sometimes so it's nice when it pays off.

I sold this pillow on Sunday and it's being shipped today, a made to order pillow.

I had sold the first one at the end of November, and am happy to have sold it a 2nd time over the weekend. I plan to list it again after my trip to Alabama because it's also good for Valentine's Day! I call it the "Whitest Winter. Cardinal Love holiday pillow".

I love red and white together for Christmas decor. Here are some fun Etsy items in that color scheme. May your days be merry and bright!!

Finally...I snagged a treasury

So I happened to be around the computer as it got closer to the treasury opening on Etsy and this time I really got one! I used most of the same items I had picked a couple weeks ago and showed here, but here is the treasury! You can click it to visit the treasury page.
I couldn't think of a more creative title so it's just Golden and Green.

Christmas Around the World

I thought it would be fun to share a few pictures of Christmas from different places around the world.

Street in Shanghai, China
Red Square Moscow, Russia

Church, Tamil Nadu, India

Tivoli Park Copenhagen, Denmark

Curitiba, Brazil bank building- LIVE carolers in each window!

Christmas Market in Frankfurt, Germany

Disneyworld, Florida USA ;)

Green, White and Red

More green, white and red! And lots of felt. I want all the posts to be festive before Christmas! Click the picture to get to the Etsy listing.

I need to take pictures...

...of various items to share on the blog!

I was part of a fun blogger gift swap put together by Angela at Pickles on Pizza, and I was excited that Tia got randomly matched to me! She is a super cool gal. She sent an adorably awesome little plaque. I will take my own pictures as well, but for now visit her blog where she has posted a tuturial on these cute plaques...and the picture below is the kind I received, except as a wall plaque. And it will be going up on the wall shortly! :) Click picture to get to the tutorial!

via ChristopherandTia

Do you remember the tutorial link I posted not long ago for DIY modern paper ornaments? I had said I couldn't finish because I didn't have staples. But my husband found some, so I think I should make a bunch now just for fun!! If you missed it, here's the link and picture from the source.

Click picture for link

Busy

I'm sure many of us are pretty busy as Christmas gets closer and closer! Christmas getting closer is bittersweet for me. The sweet part- going up to Alabama for Christmas, we will see family and will surely have a blast. The bitter- I don't want Christmas to be over too soon! I still want to feel Christmassy and not have it rush by.

Today we were out for hours shopping. And it wasn't even for Christmas gifts! I was on a mission to find an item of clothing. And whenever I am on that kind of mission, it seems I never find exactly what I wanted to! But today I found a nice substitute. I wanted a pencil skirt originally because I had two shirt options already, for wearing on Christmas Eve. Difficult task!!!! So that didn't work out. But I found a cute dress and leggings instead. And since I'm a bargain shopper, I got them both for $24 and change.

I feel like a doof in leggings because I am not thin. But my dress goes to almost the knee and the leggings are just for some extra coverage and to be "hip" hahaha. But trying on lots of clothes is not fun after awhile and does not help with self-esteem. And those surround mirrors, eeeks. Target is the worst, you can see every angle as you try on clothes. Now items have to pass the Target mirror test. If they look decent enough in THOSE mirrors, then you are good.

Christmastime from Flickr

1. christmas is coming!, 2. nativity, 3. Vintage Christmas Goodies, 4. Old Ornaments, 5. Gingerbread House, 6. christmas cookies, 7. TrEeS, 8. Nativity, 9. sweet chapel

These are the kinds of things that make Christmas feel like Christmas to me!

Vintage Thursday: White

I thought of featuring white items today. If you don't read my mother's blog(and why not? You should be reading it! :P), then you missed her cool snow pictures recently! These were taken off of highway 59 in Alabama, near Trussville, last Saturday morning.

Vintage : Shades of white
A: White Eyelet Ruffle Vintage Dress B: Moonstone ring C: Vintage white butterfly wall hangings
D: Winking owl ceramic candle holder E: White Winter Tree pillow (from me!)

Thinking of dresses

I wish I had a fancy Christmas event to go to! Alas, I don't. But still I was looking at modcloth.com at their awesome dresses! I am not ashamed to say that in reality, I am sure they would mostly not fit me! Maybe one day. ;)

I picked these six out for now as favorites. Maybe they will inspire you in case you do have an event to dress up for during the Holidays!

You can view these and other dresses at www.modcloth.com

A little more on the casual side:

A little more fancy:

New Background...although you can hardly see it!

I installed a new blog background for Christmas, but because of my three columns it's not really in view unless you have a wider computer screen. If you click ctrl and the - key a couple times, you can zoom out of my page(and any page) to see the whole background. Then click ctrl and + as many times as you clicked the - button to go back to your zoomed in view. This is something my techie husband taught me awhile ago. :) You can zoom in and out of pages, it is very helpful sometimes!

Front Page again!

Wow, my 3rd time on the front page! This evening around 8pm! I saw the sold transaction in my email a little while ago. I sold two pillows to one person. I only a few minutes ago checked craftcult.com and saw that one of the pillows had been on the front page at that time! :D You can see it here, my plaid bear pillow!

Still so amazing to me!!

Hot Chocolate Needed

Irene's Cup Of Hot Chocolate
Originally uploaded by ♥babybee

So the weather here in Florida is not as cold as much of the rest of the country, but I have been craving hot chocolate since Thursday night. We need to go grocery shopping to get some of that and a lot of other items.

Up in Alabama where my family lives, they had snow this morning! They emailed me pictures from their cell phone. Wow! It will probably melt soon, or already has, but it was so pretty. A light layer of white.

My mom is doing her first craft show this weekend! It's in downtown Birmingham, AL. It's cold there today so I hope a crowd still shows up. She is selling a lot of crocheted items that keep you warm, which should be a good seller during cold weather! I think she might be inside a building. I will try calling my dad in a little bit, he is with her, to see how it's been so far today. I am excited for her! I hope she sells lots and lots.

DIY Modern Paper Ornaments

Picture used from blog source

DIY modern paper ornaments

I was looking around online for paper ornament ideas. I came across this one, from a blog entry a couple years old, and I gave it a try. So easy, and instantly unique looking! My only problem: my mini stapler is out of staples! So I couldn't really finish it. I currently have two big paperclips holding it together. But to really hang them, I need staples!! I think they would look so cute hanging from the ceiling or on the wall. And a smaller version would be better for the tree. Try it out! (click link above)

Christmas Tree and Stockings

We put up the tree Monday night. So far, Kavi hasn't attempted to climb it but he likes staring at it and touching ornaments, and taking them off...so ornaments keep gathering under the tree. It's a carpeted room and I left off most of the delicate ornaments so it's not a big deal I guess. Nothing has been broken (yet?)! haha. The tree is somewhat tucked back in a corner, as you can see.

Living roomMore stockings around the house!

Kavi's craft art from yesterday's toddler group! (done with lots and lots of my help)

The crafty area!

So finally I am finished with my back wall space that I made to be my crafty area. I am not thrilled with the wall color anymore. I think I have mentioned that already! But I didn't feel like repainting back there. So it's bright and filled with warm colors. (I wish my pictures were better!) Click pictures for a larger view. :)
There are still some finishing touches that need to be done, as you can see the empty little frame that I haven't filled yet!

We put up our CHRISTMAS TREE last night, yayyy!! Today I also put up some Christmas decor around the living room. At the toddler group today, we made cute snowmen on paper, out of cotton balls and a little picture with snowflakes and a sleigh. I will take pictures once my rechargeable batteries are charged! (both sets are dead and charging!)

I love Christmastime!

Out and About

In a little bit me and Kavi are going to a little toddler morning group at a local church. I went the first time a couple weeks ago and thought it was cute. I was told about it by a friend for months and finally went. So I will hopefully be able to write more later on today.

My back room area that I was decorating is pretty much done. I finished it up before my family had arrived last week! I wish I could get good, natural light pictures of it but so far I haven't. Only flash pictures. So we will see!

Turkey Success

I just wanted to share a couple pictures from Thanksgiving! The day was wonderful. Our weather was really nice, a little cool outside. Much better than being warm on Thanksgiving like some years down here. We set up a table outside in our front porch (screened in). It was very nice. Today is even more chilly!

My family is visiting from Alabama, and we also had my cousin, her husband and daughter over. It was fun as usual!

I am not even tired of turkey yet. I think because there are so many things to eat on Thanksgiving, I don't get as much turkey as I wanted to. So today I am planning to snack on turkey again.

My first turkey cooking went successfully! What a relief. Here's my turkey, sorry it's still in the bag for this picture! I forgot to take a pic of it unbagged before it got carved.

Me next to my dad at the head of table, for the picture

Everyone that was here for Thanksgiving lunch/dinner, except me taking me the picture

Have a wonderful Friday! I did join in on offering some sales at my Etsy shops.
At CoffeeandCream, there is free worldwide shipping on all necklaces.
At TheCozyNest, there is a buy one get one 1/2 off section of pilows and pillow covers.

Blog readers can also receive 10% off their entire orders by mentioning "blog" in message to seller. Or just send me a message if you forget that part! Refund will be sent within 12 hours.

My day

So I'm pretty busy today as I am sure most people are! Last night I baked a pie called Mystery Pecan Pie, a Paula Deen recipe. A friend of ours made it not long ago so I got to taste it. It's so good! Looks like a regular pecan pie from the top. But the mystery part is that inside is cheesecake!!
Here's my pie:
If you would like the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/mystery-pecan-pie-recipe/index.html

I'm also cooking the turkey already today. It's in the oven now! This was my first time getting a turkey ready for baking. It's not the most pleasant thing, right? haha. Yuck! Some turkey juice got flung into my face as I was trying to pull here and there at it. I am praying it cooks well and is tasty!

My family arrives later in the evening for the weekend! yay! This time they are all coming. My nana, parents, sister and sister-like friend. All are staying here at our humble 2 bedroom abode. Somehow we manage for everyone to have a sleeping area!

Christmas Decor!!

Cute award

I was given an award from jordiegirl!

How sweet and thank you very much!! :) It comes with some rules, but I am being bad and breaking them at the moment because today has been busy and I am just finding time to post right now. I have lots of prep for Thanksgiving at my house!! :)

Minty : Flickr Pictures

1. july1st 010, 2. Bookworm, 3. It's All A Growing Process, Print, 4. Faire Houre, 5. FRYD + Design, 6. novetsy 030, 7. Shabby Christmas!, 8. Christmas Nativity, 9. whimsy studios happy homes winter series

Two of the above are my mom wearing her cool creations that are for sale!

Favorites this Friday

This list will surely change within a few days as I often add things to my favorites. But I wanted to share these specific items from my favorites lists today.

I had such a good day on Etsy yesterday! I sold a lot of items, between my two shops. That is always so exciting!! I sold 5 items from coffee and cream, and 3 from the cozy nest!

Flashback Friday!

Last week I wasn't prepared and didn't participate, but wanted to again today! I still wasn't prepared but I have a picture I can use now. Inspired by Christopher and Tia's blog.

This is from November 2001(or 2002? I think 2001), 8 years ago!
Left to right: me, my sister, our good friend, and a friend (who we never see, she lived in a different city).
We were visiting Cleveland, TN(a little north of Chattanooga) to visit our friend Lisa. She had moved away to college up there a couple years before and we went about 3 years in row to visit, the 3rd time being for her wedding! :) We were all bridesmaids, that was the year after this visit I believe.

My thoughts on this picture:
This is when me and a lot of my friends liked wearing a lot of black and tried to look more rock and roll(hehe). My hair was black as well. Rachel, the friend with red dyed hair, hates the way her hair looks in this picture. My sister and her also said "what's up with the lipstick", because darker lipstich was in style then I guess and they hate the way it looks on them in this picture haha.

Me, my sis, and Rachel were having a blast because of being in FALL weather. Coming from FL, where we don't really get to experience much of it. We were loving wearing scarves and gloves.

We were in Panera maybe, a cozy place in the downtown area.

Vintage: Pretty Coats

Some pretty vintage coats and jackets to keep you warm this winter! These are still not needed here in Florida. I would imagine most people who feel very cold right now would rather be warmer, but I'd rather be colder! There are just so many cute scarves, gloves, hats, and coats to be worn and I don't really get much of a chance to! (hehe)

Enjoy looking!

1. Blue Wool Coat 2. Cream Wool Coat 3. Cream Coat with oversize collar 4. Dusky blue and plum coat 5. 30's Wool Tweed Italian made jacket 6. Autumn Plaid Wool Trench

Treasuries

I hope me sharing these things aren't annoying, because they excite me! :) I felt like I hadn't been in many treasuries for awhile. Recently I finally seem to be in some again! Yesterday I checked and found my pillow shop in two new treasuries!

This one is such a pretty red and soft green treasury! It's called "h o l l y". I think it is front page worthy but with so many options to put on the front page, we will just have to wait and see what happens! My tree pillow is featured. You can click the image to visit the actual treasury.

Then there is also this adorable plaid treasury that a pillow is in! Called "Playful Plaid". I love plaid, and this one is also very Christmassy.
Ok and here is something that is funny to me. I didn't even start visiting craftopolis.com until very recently. I didn't KNOW you can go there and find out easily if you are in a treasury!!! If you are like me, and you didn't know that, now you know!! The treasure hunt feature is a time saver, and awesome. As well as the treasury clock! Though I haven't been on Etsy at the right time to make a treasury in quite awhile.

Coming up is a feature of pretty vintage coats!